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The 10-year-old boy was pale, malnourished and locked alone in a room that reeked of feces and urine when police and child welfare workers rescued him.

The boy, who isn’t from Canada, had been a prisoner in that bedroom for up to two years, held captive in a southeast London home by his aunt and uncle, while his cousin — their 9-year-old daughter — moved freely, officials allege.

The girl attended school.

The boy in the bedroom did not. Ever.

Friday, the sickening news spread across Canada after London police said they’d charged a London couple with confinement and failing to provide the necessaries of life.

“The child is underweight and malnourished. He has quite long hair, down below his shoulders,” Heslop said of the boy who was treated in hospital and put in foster care.

Psychologists say they’d worry about the damaging effects on a child kept under such harrowing conditions, but the director of the local child-welfare agency — which put both children from the home with foster families — said there’s reason to be happy.

“This is a joyful day for us,” said Jane Fitzgerald of the London and Middlesex Children’s Aid Society.

“This week our community came together in the service of a child. And he and another child are now safe,” she said.

A call to the agency from someone concerned a child was left alone triggered the rescue, Fitzgerald said.

The boy, whose pyjamas and bedsheets were soaked with urine when his rescuers arrived, was treated at hospital and released.

Two meals of fast food — one in the morning, one in the evening — were delivered to the boy as his only source of nutrition.

Confused and out of sorts after his rescue, he speaks some English.

One wish he expressed gave child-welfare workers even more hope.

“He wanted regular food, and he said the one thing he really wants is to go to school,” said Fitzgerald. “I think that’s a really good sign. He wants to re-enter the world.”

Police said they don’t know why the boy was kept imprisoned in the house, but the fact he was fed and had bedding indicates “a level of care,” Heslop said.

“But he had no access to education, to health care. . . “

Officials believe the boy’s aunt and uncle were his guardians and that his parents — whom authorities hadn’t reached — live out of the country.

The boy had been in London since 2010, police said. It appears he was able to move more freely in the home at first, but had been kept in the room — which has an en suite bathroom — for 18 to 24 months.

“He couldn’t get out of the room,” said Heslop.

Neighbours on the newer street where the house stands expressed shock as the story rippled out Friday. Through the windows could be seen a kitchen almost knee-deep with half-filled food containers, dirty dishes and small trash bags.

The family had moved in five years ago, but largely kept to itself, residents said.

Police said there was bedroom furniture in the room where the boy was kept, but they couldn’t say whether there were toys, books or electronics in the room. Investigators were still at the house Friday, trying to get a clearer picture.

The adults weren’t home during the days and their nine-year-old daughter at school, police said. Officials don’t believe the young cousins were able to interact.

While the boy was fed fast food, police said they don’t know what the others ate.

Police wouldn’t identify the couple, to protect the identities of both children.

While there were no immediate signs of physical abuse, investigators haven’t ruled out further charges, said Heslop.

Heslop said conditions found in the bedroom were squalid: “Feces, urine, the bed was soaked in urine, as was the child’s pyjamas.”

While neither the CAS nor police were involved with the family before for the two kids who were living there, the child-welfare agency does was involved with a now-adult child of one of the accused.

Several officers from the sexual assault and child abuse squad are running the investigation. Police are trying to determine if there was any physical abuse, said Heslop.

As of Friday, the couple remained in custody, with no bail hearing set.

— A Children’s Aid Society worker first went to the house last week after a call that a child had been left alone at night.

— Nobody answered when the social worker arrived, but she saw a shadow move in some curtains and decided to investigate further.

— CAS returned to the home, with police, Thursday.

— When nobody answered the door again, they phoned a cell number for the adults there.

— The boy’s aunt and uncle arrived and let them into the house, police said.​

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Psychologists weigh in . . .

"Severe neglect pervades every aspect of the child’s growth. It’s the entire community that needs to be monitoring the safety of children . . . It’s a wake-up call for us all when something like this happens."

— Alan Leschied, psychologist and Western University professor

"With abuse and neglect, a child ‘can become very distrustful, isolated or act out’ and might have trouble building attachments with others. Chronic neglect of a child is especially damaging since childhood is when we ‘learn how to interact with others.’"

— Gary Walters, University of Toronto psychology professor

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What neighbours say . . .

"It’s crazy. It’s sad. It’s a 10-year-old child."

"It’s unnerving to think it’s that close to your home."

"This neighbourhood has a lot of young families and tons of kids running around."